School milk in Pakistan

Tetra Pak’s experience from school milk in Pakistan goes back to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded Gothki School Milk programme, implemented by Land O’Lakes. During the first year (2003) of the Gothki school milk programme, the increase in enrolment was 42% (increase of 32 % for boys and 87 % for girls) as compared to only 7% increase in other parts of the province. The attendance rose from 40% in April 2003 to 83% in December 2005.

More recently, Tetra Pak and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) jointly developed a pilot school milk programme, successfully implemented by PPAF’s partner organization National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) during six months (January 5 –July 5, 2010) in Rahim Yar Khan. The programme provided milk on a daily basis to around 5,400 children in 50 schools.

The impact assessment comparing the situation of December 2009 with June 2010, showed that attendance rates in schools increased by 7% on average. The programme also led to the creation of 50 job opportunities in local communities. NRSP’s feedback on implementation and local commitments to the programme is very positive and the experiences built up during the pilot will facilitate a roll-out of the programme to a wider group of children. The programme was well received by targeted communities.

Tetra Pak is now supporting PPAF in developing a school milk programme for 22,000 children in Punjab and Sindh provinces benefiting from the past best practices and experiences.

February 2011